Mattia Binotto is reportedly on Alpine’s shortlist as a potential next team principal

Mattia Binotto is reportedly on Alpine’s shortlist as a potential next team principal..

It hasn’t been a great season so far for Alpine’s F1 team. Currently sitting sixth in the constructor’s championship, both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon failed to finish in the last two races. Oh, and the now ex-CEO described his own team as “amateurish” back in May.

It was perhaps no surprise that Laurent Rossi was removed from the top job last week, but today’s announcement comes as more of a shock: team principal Otmar Szafnauer will leave the team after the Belgian GP this weekend. We’re told it was a ‘mutual agreement’.

During all of this, James Vowles announced during Sky Sports F1’s Belgian GP FP1 coverage that Alpine’s Chief Technical Official, Pat Fry, is moving to Williams to become their Technical Director.

The departures come after Alpine’s CEO, Laurent Rossi, was replaced by Philippe Krief, who was only appointed as Alpine’s vice president of engineering earlier in the year.

Clearly, the answer is to get rid of all of their major management staff 😬

Otmar and Alan will continue their roles for the rest of the race weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, but once the action has concluded – they will both leave with immediate effect.

Permane has been with the Enstone team for over 30 years and has remained through all of Alpine’s previous guises, with Otmar joining ahead of the 2022 season, steering the team to a fourth-place finish in the constructors’ standings.